The Science of Religion for Mankind - Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta: Yatharth Geeta

CHAPTER 14: DIVISION OF THE THREE PROPERTIES

CHAPTER 14: DIVISION OF THE THREE PROPERTIES

Yogeshwar Krishn has elucidated the nature of knowledge in several foregoing chapters. In the nineteenth verse of Chapter 4 he said that the ordained action, commenced well by a worshipper, grows by gradual steps and becomes so subtle that all desires and will are destroyed, and what he knows then by intuitive perception is knowledge. In Chapter 13 knowledge was defined as apprehension of the Supreme Spirit who is the end of the quest for truth. Knowledge makes its advent only after the distinction between kshetr and kshetragya, matter and spirit, is comprehended. Knowledge is not logical arguments and neither is it just the memorizing of holy texts. That state of practice is knowledge in which there is awareness of truth. The experience that is had with direct perception of God is knowledge, and whatever is opposed to it is ignorance.

Even after having dwelt upon all this, however, Krishn tells Arjun in the present chapter that he will again explain that sublime knowledge to him. He is going to repeat what he has already said. This is so because, as it has been rightly said, we should time and again turn to even well-studied scriptures. Moreover, the further a worshipper proceeds on the path of spiritual quest the nearer he goes to the desired goal and has new experiences of God. This awareness is made possible by an accomplished teacher that is, a realized sage who has attained to the Supreme Spirit and who stands inseparably with the worshipper’s Self. It is for this reason that Krishn is resolved to enlighten Arjun again on the nature of true knowledge.

Memory is a film on which impressions and influences are constantly recorded. If the awareness that takes one to the supreme goal is blurred, nature which is the cause of grief begins to be imprinted on the slate of memory. So the worshipper should constantly revise the knowledge pertaining to realization of the final goal right till the moment of attainment. Memory is alive and strong today, but the same might not be the case with progress to further stages. It is for this reason that the revered Maharaj Ji used to say, “Tell your beads at least once everyday to refresh your awareness of God. But these beads are told in thought rather than externally by audible voice.’’

This is recommended for the seeker, but they who are accomplished teacher-preceptors are constantly after the seeker to acquaint him with novel situations by arising from his Soul as well as by the example of their own conduct. Yogeshwar Krishn was such a teacher-sage. Arjun who occupies the position of his pupil has beseeched him to support him. So Yogeshwar Krishn says that he will tell him again of the knowledge which is the most sublime of all knowledge.

1.  “The Lord said to Arjun, ‘I shall tell you again that supreme knowledge which is the noblest of all knowledge and, having possessed which sages have escaped from worldly bondage to achieve the ultimate perfection.’’’

This is the knowledge after acquiring which nothing else remains to be sought for.

2.  “They who have achieved my state by seeking shelter in this knowledge are neither born at the beginning of creation nor alarmed in the event of doom.”

They who are close io this knowledge and have taken refuge in it by attaining to Krishn’s state through treading the path of action are neither born nor frightened by the prospect of death, because the physical entity of the sage ceases to be at the very moment when he attains to the state of the Supreme Spirit. His body is henceforth a mere dwelling. Now which is that point up to which men are reborn? This is the question Krishn next takes up.

3.  “Like the great Creator, O Bharat, is my eight-propertied primal nature, the womb of which I fertilize with the seed of consciousness by which all beings are shaped.’’

Krishn’s eight-part primal nature, is the womb in which he sows the seed of consciousness, and all beings are born from this union of the insensate and the conscious.